This Was Not Normal

From the Wurts Brothers, “General View – Rivers – Hudson River – looking west from Whitehall Building”:

Once again, that is an accurate description of the framing of the photo – the Whitehall Building at 17 Battery Place, among other things, is where the New York harbor pilots used to be based – but it really misses the point of the photo. You would not, in ordinary circumstances, see a large ship surrounded like that by what appears to be a bunch of excursion steamers, unconnected tug boats, and private boats. It’s not only potentially dangerous, it’s a waste of everyone’s time. Unless there’s a reason…

Big passenger ships, like big buildings, have unique profiles, and once you know one, it’s hard to miss. That’s RMS Queen Mary, steaming north to the Cunard dock at pier 90. And the obvious reason for the crowd would be if this was either the ship’s first arrival in New York on June 1, 1936, or the first time the ship arrived in New York after setting the crossing speed record – the “Blue Riband” – on August 24, 1936. The first is far more likely, as the speed record was not necessarily public knowledge until after the trip was complete. (Queen Mary and SS Normandie traded the record back and forth between 1935 and 1938, with the former being the first ship to average a speed of more than 30 knots for the entire crossing; after World War II, the SS United States grabbed the record for the last time.)